Religious terrorism in South Asia

Since 1992, India is trying to declare Pakistan as a ‘terrorist state’ and the linchpin state among the terror-oriented groups, ignoring the fact that terrorism has never been rooted in Pakistan, neither was it opted as policy by the state.

According to historical chronology, the initial traces of terrorism can be found in three instances, mainly under the Assassins in Islam, under the Zealots in Judaism and lastly under the Thugs in Hinduism. Whereas the contemporary concept of terrorism is more associated with the French Revolution, it is the most referred source of contemporary terrorism in the European history where the reign of terror was legitimized as state policy.

Previously, terrorism meant ‘government by intimidation’, and terrorists were the creators and implementers of that policy. However, with the passage of decades, evolution of terrorism was inevitable. Therefore, the terror phenomenon was categorized under four waves. The anarchist wave was also called ‘the golden age of assassination’ covering the time period of 1890 and targeting monarchs, prime ministers, and presidents by foreign assassin from other states.

The second wave is ‘the anti-colonial wave’ that covers the time to 1960 targeting the colonial authority and challenged their writ in the controlled territories. Most of the terror campaigns were demanding freedom and independence in post-World War II.

The third wave, is known as the ‘new left wave’, and was the continuation of the anti-colonial struggle, but later became an intimate part of the Cold War. Radicalism and separatism were often combined in the third wave, changing the terminology of freedom fighters to terrorists. However, between 1960 to the decade of 90s, the number of fundamentalist movements in different religions has increased.

The last wave is ‘religious terrorism’, the main focus of this article. It is an ethnic and religious overlapping terror movements. Religious terrorism is not only limited to Islam; there are many incidents of terrorism related to Christianity and Judaism. Religious terrorism is best understood by considering its immediate and ultimate objectives; the ultimate aims are religiously formulated while the immediate objectives might be political.

Islamic religious terrorism has been linked with three major events, the Iranian revolution 1979, a new Islamic century, and the Soviet-Afghan war. Some scholars also include the electoral victory of the Front Islamique du Salut (FIS) in Algeria (1990-91) and the signing of the Israeli-Palestinian declaration of principles in September 1993.

An extension of the fourth wave ‘religious terrorism’ is terrorism in South Asia. The question is, why only Pakistan is always held responsible for it? Even the Kashmir dialogues are conditioned with terrorism issue. Yet Pakistan is blamed without considering the overlapping contributing factors and tendencies of the region.

The early traces of religious terrorism in South Asia starts from the Iranian Revolution of 1979, though Iran is not in South Asia, but it is one of the closest neighbouring countries from where invaders and Indo-Aryans potentially migrated to the Gangetic plains. The Khomeini-led revolution in Iran strengthened, exposing fault lines between the Sunni Gulf states and predominantly Shi’ite Iran. This struggle for regional influence, defined along sectarian lines, was also played out through a proxy terrorist war within the borders of Pakistan. The second impacting episode was the 1979 Soviet-Afghan war that proved to be lethal for the South Asian serenity on multiple fronts. It was a collaborative war between US, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan in the name of Jihad against the Soviet’s intent of expansionism. The situation in Afghanistan backfired after the Soviet withdrawal in 1989 and Pakistan bore all the intended and unintended consequences of the foreign intervention in the region. Though Pakistan’s policy of Islamization and strategic mistakes should not be ignored, but that does not mean that Pakistan is solely to blame. The geopolitical environment created inside Pakistan after 1979 eventually gave birth to militancy with the nefarious design to ultimately transform Pakistan into an orthodox theocratic Islamic State even at the expense of using violence, an idea contrary to the creation of Pakistan.

The decade of 80s did not see religious extremism in Pakistan only as Sri Lanka and India also developed the same tactics. Sri Lanka faced highly destructive phenomenon during the periods of civil war, Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) terror activities were supported by India, but it was later decisively defeated by the Sri Lankan military. Meanwhile, India also supported the Hindu-religious movement, with the BJP under RSS ideology, winning the regional election and ultimately gaining power in the centre in 1996.

‘Hindutva’ as a state policy is still followed. It advocates for resurgence of Hindu nationhood and is an ideology premised on otherization, that interiorizes a number of identities as Dalit, liberals, Christians, feminists and above all Muslims. Hindutva is a threatening challenge to the internal structure of India and to regional security.

It is claimed that Indian religious extremism is due to Pakistan’s radicalization after the Soviet-Afghan war (1979) that extended the wave of religious insecurities to India. In addition, 9/11 and the western war against terrorism has reasserted and reinforced the wave of religious terrorism with the US abruptly withdrawing and leaving the region in chaos and uncertainty again.

This wave has trapped religious faiths within meaningless geographical and political boundaries and constraints, and has been accelerated by grand shifts in the global political, economic, military and socio-cultural setting, compounded by difficult conditions for its believers. The main point to ponder is whether terrorism is not rooted in Islam; its a form of violence practiced by different origins throughout the times. Secondly, religious terrorism has been a common variable among the South Asian states. It has an inevitable effect from Iran to Sri Lanka, which has many internal as well as external regulatory factors.

Hence, religious terrorism is not confined or only associated to Pakistan; in fact it’s a global movement that falls under the fourth wave of religious terrorism. Pakistan is just like any other South Asian states facing the consequences of extremism.

The writer is an Assistant Professor at Centre for South Asian Studies, University of the Punjab